


Dekiai Robot

by deh100



Category: Johnny's Entertainment, KAT-TUN (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:28:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24442096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deh100/pseuds/deh100
Summary: Futuristic! AU. It’s 2040, and dr. Yamashita Tomohisa falls in love with a Virtual Idol moved by Artificial Intelligence…
Relationships: Kamenashi Kazuya/Yamashita Tomohisa
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17
Collections: Je-united Spring Exchange 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ladyc2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyc2/gifts).



> Dear ladyc2, I’ve picked your suggestion of using Kame’s performance in the Ignite Concert as an inspiration for my pic… I’m afraid the story ended up being more superficial and rushed than what I was initially aiming for, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.  
> 1) The story is set in a future when the technology here presented already exist, but it isn’t a future too far, so that universe is still very similar to our present reality… just because I didn't want to have the trouble of creating a new reality… (laugh).  
> 2) To read this story, it’d be best to know who and what “Vocaloids”/ Virtual Idols are… In case the readers aren’t familiar with them, I’m linking an article [HERE](https://vocaloid.fandom.com/wiki/VOCALOID) . Also, if you’ve never seen a LIVE performance of a virtual idol, [HERE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O17f3lB7BFY) here is one of Hatsune Miku  
> 3) “Dekiai Robot” is also the title of one of Yamapi’s songs (not really one of my favorites, but I thought it fitted the story).

After 12 long hours attending patients at the ER, with all kinds of complaints, including not only simple problems - such as a mild diarrhea -, but also complex cases, like a stab wound on the abdomen, everything Yamashita Tomohisa wanted was to have a simple meal and chill while watching a movie.  
But the last thing he expected was to have his friend, Matsumoto Jun, appearing at his door at 9pm, bringing a huge box covered in dark wrapping paper, inside his house.  
“What the hell, sempai” said Yamashita, too tired to give a proper greeting; the two of them knew each other since high school, which was why Yamashita (also called as “Yamapi”, a nickname given in his teenage years), still referred to Jun as “sempai” sometimes (even though, during high school, Yamapi and his friends actually used to jokingly refer to Jun as “King”).  
“Yo! Long time no see, Yamapi~~ How is the glamorous life of a surgeon?”, cheerfully asked Jun, while placing the big box (taller than both of them), in the middle of the living room.  
(Yamapi had a bad feeling about that thing…).  
“Don’t you mean ‘how is the tiresome and busy life of a RESIDENT doctor in training’?... I’m not a surgeon yet…Honestly, I spend less than half of my time in surgery nowadays… most of the time, I’m talking to patients suffering with flatulence, or asking if someone’s feces are too hard or too soft… believe me, nothing really glamorous“ answered Yamapi, while going to the kitchen to get his dinner on the microwave. Jun just laughed. “Do you want something to drink? Juice? Beer?”.  
“Just water, please”.  
Yamapi took his plate, fetched a glass of water for Jun, and then they went back to the living room, where the monitor was on, paused on a movie that Yamapi had randomly chosen, to watch while eating his dinner. They had barely sat down, when Yamapi asked one more time: “so, what is this huge think you decided to bring me in the middle of the night?”  
Jun smiled, like an excited child with a new toy. In response, he took the remote control of the monitor that was on the coffee table in front of them, and switched the paused movie to Google, where he searched for “crypton future media”. Among all the results, Jun choose one of the videos, entitled “[CM] Your Favorite Vocaloid At Your House NOW!”  
The video started playing, and Yamapi soon recognized the features of HATSUNE MIKU, the beloved Vocaloid and one of the pop symbols of Japan, side by side with other characters like Doraemon or Mario. The video showed HATSUNE MIKU dancing and singing, and then turning into a ‘person’ that Yamapi recognized as ‘HIRANO SHO’, one of the most popular “virtual idols” nowadays.  
Crypton Future Media was the company that first started selling the ‘singing synthesis engine’, also known as “Vocaloid”, a virtual idol with a synthesized voice.  
Pi wasn’t really a fan of vocaloid singers, but of course he knew about them - especially because some of his friends, including Matsumoto Jun, worked at that company - and Jun, especially, loved talking about his work… The first Vocaloids mascots, created more than 30 years ago, had the appearance of anime characters, the most popular one being, of course, Hatsune Miku. However, in the past 10 years, Crypton Future Media started incorporating the technology already used in movies and such to generate a virtual face with the looks of a “real human being”, with an original human face, as well as a synthesized original voice.  
Although the first “realistic-virtual-idols” still looked artificial and even a bit “creepy”, it didn’t take long for the softwares to advance so much, that those vocaloids now looked and moved like real people; and just like Hatsune Miku and other older vocaloids, these now “realistic idols” would hold big concerts, where their images were projected on a stage, and they would sing and dance so naturally, that it was just like watching a real artist on stage....  
(Some people, of course, would question the necessity of a virtual idol that looked like a normal human being when you could just… have a real person as an idol. Other people would say that a virtual idol didn’t need to train to have a beautiful voice or graceful moves, you just had to create the right algorithm for it. And others would say that a virtual idol didn’t need security guards and didn’t ask for raises on payment...).  
Crypton Future Media also started commercializing a “domestic” feature of those virtual idols: a real-sized vocaloid, who could be projected just like a hologram, and that was now a mania among the youngsters… Everyone wanted their “personal vocaloid” inside their houses… almost as if there was a real idol there, just a few centimeters of distance, singing your favorite songs and dancing just for you…  
The CM seemed to be showing exactly that: in the video, HIRANO SHO, one of the so-called “realistic-virtual-idols”, was singing and dancing in the middle of a kitchen in front of a happy young woman, who was singing along to the pop song played on the CM.  
“And now, not only you can have your favorite virtual-idol home, but also talk with them!” the narrator of the CM was now saying, while the scene changed to the woman now seated in the couch of her living room, and having a conversation with HIRANO SHO.  
As the narrator finished the CM talking about how to reserve your own personal vocaloid with the new “interaction software”, Jun turned to Yamapi to explain how Crypton Future Media was now using “artificial intelligent”, to allow this kind of interaction between consumer and vocaloid - and Jun was the leader of the team responsible for such enterprise.  
“It’s still a prototype, of course, so it needs a few adjustments… But we’re really proud of what we have now… With the first models, you could just ask simple questions like ‘what’s gonna be the weather today?’ or ‘how are you feeling today?’, or just receive a ‘okaerinasai’ when the vocaloid registers that the owner is back at home… Now, you can have long conversations with your vocaloid, who would even have an unique personality, and give proper responses according to it.”  
Yamapi, who had just finished eating his dinner (he was used to eating fast, since you never know when there’s going to be a surgical emergency), said: “I’m assuming the big thing you brought here is the prototype you’re developing then…”  
Jun smiled “No wonder, you’re a doctor, so smart~~ Okay, okay, I’m kidding. Take a look: this is just one of the prototypes, obviously…”  
Underneath the wrapping paper, there was a tall and transparent box, a bit taller than both Jun and Yamapi, that seemed to be made of glass (but probably was, in fact, a much more resistant material). There was a panel in the lateral of the box, with a touchscreen surface and three buttons aligned in the lateral of it. When Jun pressed the top button, the panel turned on, and after touching a few icons on the screen, a light came on inside the box.  
Silently and smoothly, an image appeared inside the box: it was a person, in real scale, standing with the eyes closed. If Yamapi didn't know that this was just a tridimensional hologram, he could have sworn it was an actual human being inside that box, sleeping.  
The clothes were quite simple (for an idol): a black and white T-shirt, colorful jacket, black denim pants and a chain around his neck. But what caught Yamapi’s attention was his face: so pretty that it could be either a man or a woman.  
Jun, who was paying close attention to Yamapi’s reaction, commented: “Amazing huh?”  
“Wow… it’s so real… it really looks like a real person…”  
“Well, that’s pretty standard for a realistic-vocaloid… But I guess you’ve never really seen one of those in person... Anyway, the most important aspect of it comes now!”  
Jun pressed another button on the touchscreen panel: the lights flickered, and the vocaloid slowly opened its eyes, the lights reflecting on its long lashes.  
And then, to Yamapi’s surprise, the vocaloid suddenly changed its pose: his index finger in his cheek, the tongue peaking outside of the mouth, and one of his eyes winking.  
“My name is KAME! Nice to meet you~~”.  
“Hellooo… My name is Jun and he is Yamapi! Awww isn’t he cute, Yamapi?”, teased Jun.  
Yamapi, not knowing what to say, gave a half nod and an uncertain smile towards Jun.  
“Let’s choose a song for him to perform… Unfortunately, we’re still making a repertoire, so there aren’t many tracks available… Let’s see this one”, after accessing the tracklist in the panel, Jun selected a song called “Can’t cry”.  
The box went slightly darker, and pink LED lights started dancing inside it, just as a soft melody began somewhere in the box (Yamapi couldn’t see any speakers, but he supposed there must be many of them hidden at all the corners). Glasses appeared on KAME’s face, and he started singing:  
“ _Nagai, nagai, yoru wo koete, anata wo kanjiru…_ ”  
It was a catchy song, during which KAME moved a lot (within the possibilities of the limited space inside the box); holographic feathers fell from the ceiling of the box during the performance, he fished a phone inside the pocket of his jacket and took a selfie, and even materialized a cup of Bubble tea in his hand at some point - everything while making a lot of what Pi supposed were seductive and cute faces and poses. And the grand finale was him turning around, showing his back to them and starting to take his shirt off - which made something inside Pi really uncomfortable, so he slightly avoided his eyes to fix in a point of the wall. But soon the lights went off inside the box, and when they came on again, KAME was bowing towards them (and properly dressed as well, thanks God).  
“Woohoo”, Jun applauded when the performance was over. Pi politely applauded too.  
“So, what do you think?”  
“He… winks a lot, I guess?”, whispered Yamapi  
“You noticed, huh?” Jun looked proud for some reason “After the great success we had with one of our last products, the ‘NAKAJIMA KENTO’ vocaloid, we realized that a lot of our consumers liked this kind of idol behaviour, so we made sure to develop a special ‘flirty feature’… Once activated, he is able to give a lot of compliments and show a sensual behaviour to the customer”. At that exact moment, KAME gave another wink towards Yamapi and also licked his lips. Yamapi ignored that, but the android didn’t seem to mind.  
“Well… congratulations, it looks really good. Good luck with the final touches of your… project” said Yamapi, feeling already tired with all that show.  
“THANKS for being so supportive!” said Jun cheerfully, giving a too animated slap in Yamapi’s shoulder (who was, again, having a REALLY bad feeling about this). “And since you’re being SO supportive, how about helping us and doing a ‘test drive’ of our product? We will be nice enough to let you have the vocaloid for some days, so… Enjoooy it!”..  
“Wait, wait, wait! What are you talking about? You’re leaving this thing here??” protested Yamapi, while Jun quickly grabbed his bag and walked towards the door.  
“No need to thank me~~ Just make sure to interact with him a lot, and give us regular updates about its functioning” finished Jun with a bright smile, already out of Yamapi’s house “Goodbye KAME~~”.  
And with that last sentence, he was gone. Yamapi groaned.  
“Yamapi, you’re pretty muscular… Do you go to the gym often?” asked KAME. Yamapi groaned again. These would be some pretty long days…  
******************  
It took a while for Yamapi to get used to having a “personal vocaloid” inside his house. For the first days, he would freak out every time he came back home, hearing a cheerful and loud “okaeri!” from the living room. He thought about turning off the device when he was away from home, but Jun had been adamant about keeping it on 24 hours a day, so they’d know that their system was able to function for consecutive days without crashing.  
He also had to change a lot of his habits. One of the first things Yamapi used to do when he arrived home was to immediately start taking off his clothes, head to the shower and just rest a bit in his couch, while watching something on TV, usually only in his boxers. But KAME’s presence made him a bit shyer, and now Yamapi would go straight to the bathroom (after saying a half-hearted “tadaima” to the vocaloid) and properly wear shirt and pants when leaving the shower.  
The one time he forgot about wearing his clothes, and went back to the living room with only a towel around his waist, he heard a loud “looking hot, Yamapi!” that made him strongly blush (the same day, he asked Jun about toning down the “flirty feature” of the A.I).  
******************  
“So, what are your thoughts about our new product until now?”  
Yamapi was in his room with the door closed, just to get a bit of privacy, in a video call with Jun.  
It was a week since KAME had been left on his house; by now, Yamapi was quite used to the vocaloid’s behaviour. Most of the time, he’d be seated with his back against the box wall, sometimes “drinking” a virtual bubble tea (which would appear out of nowhere), or keep looking at his phone (although the screen of the phone was always off).  
When Yamapi looked towards the other for more than 3 seconds, or when he said something out loud, KAME seemed to awake from his stand-by mode, and soon he’d try to interact, by giving a random compliment, or simply asking “How are you feeling, Yamapi~~” with the brightest smile Pi had ever seen.  
“Hmmm… the facial recognition software is amazing… and its repertoire of phrases is incredibly wide… It hasn’t given the same response until now… And the replies are always quite consistent with what we talk… It’s almost creepy… As if we are talking to a real person...”.  
“I’m gonna take it as a compliment” dismissed Jun with a gesture of his hand. “Ok, any complaints or suggestions?”  
“He... talks a lot sometimes…”. Yamapi discovered that KAME seemed quite passionate about some subjects, like baseball or cooking, and he’d start giving lots of randoms facts and informations about the matter if given the chance.  
(The only time Yamapi decided to stop and watch a baseball game in his TV monitor - just because he couldn’t think of another thing to do -, KAME suddenly got up from where he was seated inside the box, and inquired “Is this a baseball game? Is this a Giants’ game?”.  
Yamapi, who had jumped from the couch with the sudden question, answered “No… I think it’s the Hanshin Tigers versus Softbank…”.  
“Oh”. KAME’s enthusiasm decreased a bit, but it didn’t stop him to fix his eyes on the monitor, and he looked so engrossed on the game that Yamapi didn’t have the heart to change the channel… Although he felt like the vocaloid wasn’t really following the game, a feeling he confirmed when, by the end of the game, KAME commented ‘The Giants played REALLY well today, don’t you think?’).  
“Oh yeah… we always want our Vocaloid to have unique characters… We thought it’d be funny if he was the talkative type”.  
_Will this really be popular..._ was Yamapi’s thought. Out loud, he just said “hmm, okay. So, when are you going to take it back?”  
“For now, the company is still choosing the setlist of songs that will be installed in his hard drive… And we are also adjusting some of its algorithms… So, just keep it for a few more days”.  
“Wait, Jun, I have other things to do besides getting distracted with your toy…”  
“Oh, I think Ohno-san is calling me… Too bad, I call you back later, message me if you need, bye~~” cut Jun, with a goofy smile.  
******************  
That was probably the worst day Yamapi ever had at the hospital.  
There was a car crash incident near the hospital he was working, so three patients were taken taken to the ER at the same time. The most unstable patient had to be almost immediately transferred to the operation room, since there was the suspicion of a ruptured liver - the blood pressure was too low, and the ultrasound showed signs of blood in the abdominal cavity.  
Finally, Yamapi had the chance to participate in a big procedure… But unfortunately, they couldn’t control the bleeding, and the patient died on the operating table.  
Back in the ER waiting room, Yamashita was the one responsible to giving the bad news to the family. And after that, he couldn’t even rest… the other two patients involved in the accident started getting unstable, and he spent the rest of his shift monitoring them.  
When he arrived home, he said a tired ‘tadaima’ and just slumped on the couch of the living room. KAME, as always, greeted him with a over-enthusiastic “okaeri!”. However, Yamapi’s posture, as well the intonation of his voice, were probably recognized by KAME’s system, since he immediately adopted a serious attitude, and the smile was gone from his face.  
“Are you okay, Yamapi? Do you want to talk about something?”. Yamapi was surprised with the soft tone used by the vocaloid; he genuinely sounded worried (as worried as an A.I. could sound, at least), and the look he was giving was so gentle and inviting, that Yamapi couldn’t help but start ranting about the shitty day he had at work - all the frustrations, the regrets and the rage he was feeling, not just that day, but about the whole residency and his life as a newly graduated doctor...  
It had been some time since Yamapi was able to talk so much uninterrupted, and after 20 minutes, he was already exhausted - but also partially relieved. He was starting to feel slightly ashamed for having spoken so much to an “inanimate thing”, but then, KAME said “I’m sorry you went through all of that… Is there something I’m able to do for you?”. Just a standard phrase, but it touched Yamapi’s heart anyway.  
“Will it help if I sing and dance for you? Perhaps without my shirt on?” asked KAME with an uncertain expression, while getting up and starting to take off his jacket. Yamapi quickly interrupted him, shaking his hand and exclaiming “no, no, no, no need for it!”. KAME pouted, and the ridicule of the situation made Yamapi laugh out of the blue.  
“You look much more handsome when you smile!” KAME pointed; he wasn’t flirting now, it just seemed a pretty honest remark from the vocaloid (at least, that was what Yamapi wanted to believe).  
Feeling much lighter, he realized that, perhaps, having a “personal idol” in his house wasn’t as troublesome as it seemed at first...  
******************  
“What are you doing, Yamashita-kun?” the vocaloid asked to Yamapi, who had just started sorting some pans in his kitchen.  
“I’m gonna cook my lunch” he answered simply.  
“Cook? What are you gonna cook?” the look in KAME’s face seemed intrigued and confused.  
“Creamstew”  
“Oh, I love creamstew!” suddenly, KAME’s face brightened up, and his whole body showed some kind of excitement; PI still couldn’t get used to how fast his reactions would change, according to the situation - an excellent job by Jun’s team.  
“You love food?” snickered Pi, thinking about the absurdity of a “virtual being” liking any kind of flavor… But of course, it wouldn’t be hard to just create a list of random food to be his “favorite ones” and just insert the data into his program...  
After an hour, the dish was ready, and at KAME‘s insistence, he went over to the vocaloid to show the final result.  
“Wow, it looks soooo yummy! You really made this? Incredible!”.  
Yamapi laughed. “Yeah, I’m pretty amazing aren’t I? G-O-D, right here!” he joked, pointing to himself.  
KAME looked blankly at him. “I’m sorry, I don’t get it”.  
Yamapi laughed “it’s okay. Just an intern joke”  
******************  
“Are you dating someone, Yamashita-kun?”.  
Trust Toda Erika to ask the most unexpected questions at the most random moments… She was also a surgery resident, and the two of them knew each other since the first year of college. They weren’t close friends, but this didn’t stop her to ask quite inconvenient things sometimes...  
“No, I’m not, Toda-san… Why do you ask?”. They were both enjoying a moment of deserved rest, drinking a cup of the free coffee provided by the hospital (not really tasty, but free and full of caffeine, which was the most important aspect of it).  
“You look… happier lately… How should I put it… Usually, you don’t really show facial expressions when we are on call… You know, your nickname among the interns is ‘dead-fish-eyes’” (Yamapi gently tsukkomi-ed her at this moment) “It’s not my opinion! It’s theirs! Anyway… You’ve been smiling a lot more recently, and I think I even saw you winking at a patient today, that old lady who couldn’t stop talking about her grandson…”.  
“You do look better these days, Yamashita-san” Aragaki Yui-chan, who had just grabbed a sandwich to eat, decided to join the conversation. “If you are really dating, make sure to keep that person in your life, because it’s doing you some good…”  
“Err… thanks, I guess?”. He kept drinking his coffee while avoiding the eyes of his two fellow residents; he had to admit, just thinking about KAME waiting for him home already put a smile on his face...  
******************  
After weeks without having the time (or the proper mood) to hang out with his friends outside of work, Yamapi finally got a day off when he was able to go for a drinks with his mates Jin and Ryo, both childhood friends.  
Before heading to the bar, they decided to go to Yamapi’s house, just so he could grab his cellphone, which he had forgotten home.  
While Yamapi searched for his phone, Jin and Ryo stopped to analyze that new acquisition Yamapi hadn’t stopped talking about for the last days .  
“Oh yeah, Jun-kun also can’t stop talking about that damn project he is working on… That’s why I’ve been refusing all his invitations to dinner lately…”. Ryo was also a friend of Matsumoto Jun (Jin knew Matsumoto too, but their relationship was more like a rivalry - an eternal fight that went back their high school years…).  
“Wow, his movements are so fluid and natural… I must admit, Jun is really competent in programming” said Ryo, with admiration, while KAME sang a song called “Kizuna”.  
“Hmm… His eyebrows are kinda weird man… they are too thin and too angulated…”. Jin made a movement with his fingers to mimic the angle of the eyebrows.  
KAME frowned and raised an eyebrow in displeasure (apparently, he was able to detect an insult directed to him).  
“Don’t hurt his feelings, Jin… His eyebrows are just fine” said Pi, while throwing a reassuring wink to KAME (who reflexively smiled in response).  
It was now Jin’s turn to raise his eyebrow. “Dude… he’s just an A.I… No real feelings to be hurt, man”.  
“You’re just jealous because Yamapi cares more about his vocaloid than you, Jin…”, joked Ryo. They all laughed, but Jin’s comment bothered Yamapi for some reason.  
******************  
“Kame? Do you also play the guitar?”  
KAME, who was playing with a ball of baseball on his hand until that moment, looked up in Pi’s direction as soon as his name was pronounced.  
“I play a bit of guitar, I guess” he answered with a shy and dorky smile in his face.  
It was friday night, but Jin had just canceled their night out because he had to take care of Theia, his daughter… So Pi resigned himself to just drink a bottle of beer by himself… Thankfully, he had KAME by his side; while navigating through the menu of functionalities present on the box panel, he discovered that one of the options of KAME’s performances included “playing the guitar”.  
“Well… how about you play the guitar for me, then? Just a little”, he teased.  
“Do you want me to play the guitar for you? Okay”. A guitar materialized in KAME’s hands, as well as a chair behind him; assuming a serious face, he tentatively stroked a few notes and then started singing:  
“ _Tatoeba… moshi kono yoru… boku wa kimi wo, ushinaata to shitemo…_ ”  
There was no background melody, no special visual effects inside the box… Just KAME, his guitar, and a fainty light surrounding him… Yamapi turned off the lights of the living room, to increase that ethereal atmosphere.  
“ _... Wasurenai yo, boku wa kimi wo…_ ”  
Yamapi hadn’t realized when he got closer to the box, but now, also seated on the floor, the bottle of beer forgotten in his hand, his face almost touched the box wall, and his breath would fog the front of the glass. And what he wouldn’t give to get even closer and just raise his hand and touch KAME’s face and make him look in his eyes while singing…  
“ _...Aishiteirukara…_ ”  
Yamapi closed his eyes. What was he thinking? This was a “robot”, for god sake. Not a real person. No matter how many emotions it was able to emulate, no matter how sweet his voice was, no matter how gentle and funny he sounded, how beautiful his face was… Not a real person.  
This thought suddenly made him really sad. Had he drunk that many beers? He slowly got up from the floor and gave his back to KAME, who was just playing the final notes of the song.  
“Did you liked it?!” Again, the same enthusiastic intonation on his artificial voice…  
“...Very much” Pi answered, not daring to look towards the other again.  
******************  
“Yamapi, I hope you’ve enjoyed this incredible experience of getting along with one of our Vocaloids, and for free! Unfortunately, after almost two months, we’ll be getting our product back now... ”.  
Yamapi didn’t say anything to Jun. Mixed feelings collided inside of him… sadness, relief, loneliness… the sensation of losing a friend, but also the confusion over the fact that he considered that A.I. as a friend…  
(And if he stopped to really think about his feelings, he’d realize he wanted KAME to be much more than a friend… but obviously, he couldn’t admit that to himself).  
But now he was going away anyway… And he wouldn’t need to worry about his sanity anymore. “Better be this way, I guess” he murmured.  
“What did you say? Couldn’t hear you…”.  
“Hmmm you did a good job with Kame… with this project”.  
“Well, thanks. Tomorrow is sunday, right? Do you have the day off? I will stop by your house tomorrow morning then. Bye”  
Yamapi disconnected the call.  
He went straight to the translucent box in the middle of his living room - that “object” was so strange to him two months ago, but now... he couldn’t envision his life without it.  
“Yamapi!” exclaimed KAME, as cheerful as always. “What are we doing today? Watching a baseball game? Listening to some music? Playing the guitar? Doing monomanes?”.  
Yamapi tried to smile. He didn’t want KAME’s last memory to be a depressing one.  
“Kame… Thanks for everything… Somehow, you made my daily life a bit brighter, taking me away from my monotone routine…It was good to come back from work, knowing that there would be something… someone waiting for me... It was really funny to watch your interesting reactions and weird question, allowing me to see life with other eyes… ” his voice stuttered by that point, so he stopped to take some deep breaths.  
He was probably doing a bad job hiding his sorrow, because KAME had a confused look on his face.  
“Yamapi?”  
He couldn’t prolong that anymore. “Thank you, Kame…”. He smiled a last time, and the vocaloid reacted by giving Yamapi a big wink.  
“In the end, your winks aren’t as annoying as I thought” Yamapi murmured, while pressing some buttons. KAME’s image flickered and disappeared, as the lights went off inside the box.  
“...Goodbye”.  
******************  
Things were slowly getting back to normal (as normal as the life of an aspiring surgeon could be, at least). He still couldn’t stop saying “tadaima” each time he entered home; when he saw a baseball game playing on TV, he’d always stop for some minutes, even though he didn’t like the sport so much. Yamapi even decided to buy a cup of bubble tea on his way back home once, to know the taste of it (it was good).  
The wound on his chest was slowly healing.  
One day, after a long shift of 12 hours attending patients at the ER, the only thing Yamapi wanted was to have a simple meal and chill while watching a movie. But the last thing he expected that day was to receive a call from Matsumoto Jun. It had been some days since he last heard from the other, which Yamapi assumed was due to the work - after all, Crypton Future Media was planning to release the new vocaloid in a month, according to all the advertising released recently.  
“What do you want, sempai?” said Yamapi as a greeting (it was almost midnight, he allowed himself to be a bit rude with Jun).  
“Hey, sorry for calling so late, but I lost track of time here in the office. Anyway, do you have the day off tomorrow? My team wanted to collect some opinions on your experience with the prototype”.  
Yamapi wasn’t sure if he wanted to revive his memories with KAME, but maybe a talk about what happened during those weeks would help him overcome it.  
“Ok. I don’t have anything tomorrow. Do you want to do a video conference?”  
“Yeah, I considered a remote meeting but… It’s been some time since we hang out together, what about coming here at the company? I can show you around, and after the meeting, we go out for some drinks… What do you think?”  
Yamapi wasn’t really feeling like going out, but before he could think of a response, Jun suddenly seemed to remember something:  
“Oh, and if you come here, I can introduce you to Kame. You must be curious about the person who was the reference for the Vocaloid you were with…”  
Yamapi’s mind went blank: “excuse me? Reference? Kame? What are you talking about?!”.  
“Oh, I thought I had talked about it… Anyway, that vocaloid we lent you, it was created based on Kamenashi Kazuya, a real employee here at our company; he took a lot of tests to see how he’d behave towards certain situations, and what kind of answers he’d give concerning some questions - the root for the algorithm we developed. Kame, the REAL Kame, works on the music department of Crypton Future Media; actually, the songs available in our prototype were all written by Kame himself.”  
Pi didn’t know what to say; it was as if his whole world had been turned upside down. Jun continued talking:  
“His voice came from Kamenashi as well… Since this is just a prototype, we didn’t want to waste time synthesizing an original voice for it, and it’s much easier to just use a pre-existent voice as a base for all the sounds emitted by our vocaloid…”  
Yamapi had a lot of questions, but he decided to start asking: “So you intend to just sell thousands of vocaloids based on a real person? Isn’t it a bit strange and creepy?”  
Jun huffed. “Of course we won’t do such a thing. We just used him as a base to create the algorithm of the Artificial Intelligence that will be used on the real thing… At this exact moment, another team is creating a unique appearance and personality for our new vocaloid… we were planning to name it as either ‘JESSE’ or ‘TANAKA JURI’... What do you think?”  
“Why haven’t you mentioned that a real Kame existed before?” Yamapi still couldn’t fully comprehend the situation… that a very much alive Kame existed somewhere…  
“As I said, I thought I had mentioned it already… Are you ok? You look a bit shaken…”, Yamapi didn’t respond. Jun looked a bit worried, but decided to not probe further.  
“So… Are you coming tomorrow?”  
“Yes! Yes, I am!”  
******************  
The meeting didn’t take long. Yamapi couldn’t even recall the questions they asked, all the time anxious about meeting the so called Kamenashi Kazuya… Jun noticed it, and made sure to quickly end the meeting when the important stuff was already inquired.  
Jun took Yamapi to show him around the office; Yamapi tried to pay attention to what his friend was talking, but he could only think of one thing…  
“And here works the music department… Hello, guys, this is my friend, Yamapi… And these are Nakamaru, Ueda and… where is he… Oh, there is Kame! Hey, Kame! This is my friend who took the Vocaloid with your face on! Come here…”  
Yamapi felt like he had forgotten how to breathe properly, as a man with a guitar on his hand came in his direction.  
He looked just like Kame, the Virtual Idol… But there were some imperfections, some wrinkles around his eyes, that assured Pi that it was a real human being in front of him… The hairstyle was different too - a longer hair, slightly ondulated. And a delicate fragrance of vanilla reached Pi’s nose when Kamenashi was close enough.  
“Hey… Nice to meet you… oh, but I think you already know me…” Kame smiled, while extending his hand to shake. It was a polite smile, but also mixed with a bit of shyness and tease at the same time. “I hope you didn’t ask the Vocaloid to take off his clothes… that would be embarrassing!” he laughed, and it was a warm, friendly and contagious laugh, similar to THAT one, but also totally different…  
“No… I don’t think I know you at all” was Yamapi’s response when extending his own hand to shake the other one. The moment their hands touched, Yamapi felt alive again, for the first time in weeks.  



	2. EPILOGUE - 3 MONTHS LATER

The release of the new Vocaloid was a big success in Japan. A big party was thrown by the executives of Crypton Future Media, and Yamapi, of course, got invited by Jun.  
Even tired, Yamapi made sure to go to the party… After all, not only he wanted to talk with his friends, Jun included, but also speak with Kamenashi, if given the chance…  
Jun took the opportunity to introduce Yamapi to all his colleagues and friends in the company, including Ninomiya Kazunari, an engineering, who was also pretty close to Kamenashi; and Nino, being the quick-witted guy that he was, immediately realized how interested Yamapi was in Kamenashi.  
“I mean, it was TOO OBVIOUS with the way you couldn’t stop looking at him…” was Nino’s comment the next day, during a video call. Yamapi blushed.  
Of course, Nino and Jun (who had been rapidly informed by Nino about Yamapi’s interest) decided to plot a scheme to bring the two together.  
“I suppose I’m happy you guys approve of a possible relationship with Kame…”.  
“Well, honestly, Kame is a workaholic, and he urgently needs to get an interest outside of work…”, said Nino, nonchalantly, “we tried to get him with Nakamaru, but it didn’t work out, unfortunately… So you are our last hope now…”  
Since Jun’s project had finally launched, and Yamapi was now in a much easier rotation at the hospital, they now had more free time to hang out together - in which times Jun would make sure to invite / drag Kame.  
It took a month until Yamapi had the opportunity to meet Kame without Jun or Nino by their side; and, surprisingly, it was Kame who took the initiative to invite Yamapi to go out for dinner.  
“Jun and Nino said they are going to stay at the office for another two hours to finish whatever-the-hell-they-are-doing… And they say ‘I’ am the workaholic one…” Kame huffed. “Anyway, I want to eat at the new ramen shop you recommended me the other day… since it’s close to your workplace, do you wanna meet there?”  
It was with apprehension that Yamapi went to the restaurant to meet Kame that night… But at the end of the meal, they were already treating each other as close friends.  
As Yamapi and Kame got closer, he couldn’t get enough of knowing more and more about the other. It was always funny to see the many colours of Kame’s personality - the kawaii side (that was very prominent in his Vocaloid persona), versus his really cool side, the one he constantly showed at work.  
(Yamapi often visited Kame at work, not only to talk with the other, but because he truly enjoyed seeing them composing melodies, playing their instruments and writing lyrics. Yamapi loved music - he even knew how to play the guitar - and he probably would have tried to be an artist if he weren’t a doctor).  
And beside his kawaii and cool sides, Yamapi learned that Kame could also be VERY lame - especially after some drinks, when he would start doing all sort of imitations, including the actor Hiraizumi Sei-san, Yoshiki (from X) and even Donald Duck.  
(Also, just like the old Vocaloid, Kame could be REALLY talkative when talking about subjects he was passionate about...).  
******************  
Besides going out to dinner, Yamapi and Kame also started to go out to other places in Tokyo, like going to the movies, museums, bars and clubs.  
One night, they decided to go to a pretty popular club near Kame’s house. After some hours dancing, Yamapi realized he had lost Kame - he didn’t seem to be anywhere inside the house.  
Yamapi got out of the club with the intent of calling Kame, but, surprisingly, he found the other happily eating a hot dog from a food truck parked outside the club.  
“Yamapi~~ Look, they have hot dogs here. Do you want some?”  
Pi smiled and approached Kame, who was grinning and offering a half eaten hot dog towards the other. Maybe it was the dancing, maybe it was the alcohol, but when he approached his face towards Kame, it was without a inch of hesitation that he just averted the hot dog and went to the other’s mouth.  
It probably wasn’t the most romantic scenario for a first kiss - the backstreet outside a club, in front of a food truck -, but Yamapi felt like this was the sweetest moment of his entire life.  
It was a short kiss, and Yamapi soon retreated his face to properly see Kame’s reaction. The surprise was evident on his face, but a second later, he was smiling and extending his free hand towards Pi’s neck  
“Is this ok?” Yamapi asked, sobering up a bit.  
Kame - sweet and real Kame, the baseball fanatic who also liked boxing, who hated tomatoes, who was really passionate about his work, who loved doing impressions when drunk, who constantly took selfies and photos of his friends, who worked so much he sometimes forgot to eat - , said no words, just closing the distance between them again… 

_...Wasurenaide, boku wa kimi wo, aishiteirukara..._


End file.
